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Boris’s Legacy? – politicalbetting.com
Boris’s Legacy? – politicalbetting.com
The government’s vaccination programme has been one of the government’s undoubted successes.
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https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/04/01/we-need-talk-about-ufos-again/?outputType=amp
Really nothing else will matter much in the history books.
Would be a bit mean to announce right after we finally get some hardcore rovers on Mars.
US government: “Big deal, we have a spacetime warp drive that can take us to Zeta Reticuli”.
On a more serious note, there’s a staggering sense of denial going on with this. The UK establishment might prefer this all remained unspoken and classified but for better or worse, Trump started the snowball rolling down the hill with the Pentagon video release, and it’s not going to stop until it absorbs the entire mountainside.
I get that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. But to take senior US officials at their public word, we have multi point evidence (eye witness, video, radar array, satellite) that UFO’s are real and are taking an active interest in our oceans and the world’s nuclear facilities. That they operate in a way that stretches our physics yet alone our own technology. Why would very senior people speaking in an official capacity (and countless juniors) make this up?
This is covid all over again. In a year you will all claim you saw it coming.
Because we are very nearly into the groups where the risk of death is very low, and that needs to be balanced with the further risk to the vulnerable or old people who are still due their second dose.
Start to get your head around it a little. It will then come as less of a shock.
Stuff like this, for example:
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2021/march/copper-foam-as-a-highly-efficient-durable-filter-for-reusable-masks-and-air-cleaners.html
I hope that task forces from the new Free Ports are talking to lots of companies with offers of support and attractive infrastructure (eg the UK expertise in trials and related databases, the rule of law which has been abandoned in Brussels, and the fact that a third of the top research Unis in Europe are in the UK), and a note about the 130% Capital Allowances.
As she points out, there's thus far little evidence of coherent thinking about research funding, with semi-random cuts at the same time as we're proclaiming a massive increase in investment.
The idea is great; I am sceptical about the execution.
This might also have some interaction with fit, comfort and the integration between the various parts of the PPE systems.
Some of the pictures of medics wearing stuff has looked patchy in coverage, lots of gaps and also cumbersome to wear.
Republican resistance to vaccination has, if anything, solidified:
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-march-2021/
https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/1377618991787737090?s=21
TLDR:
1. Brexit has itself made the Commission more powerful by removing a break on federalism.
2. Brexit exposed a legitimacy question for the EU which it is trying to fill through greater protectionism (in turn making it more a rival than a collaborator of the UK’s)
3. As the US turns to Asia, Brexit forces Continental Europe to look ever more towards Eurasia. The Western Alliance is dissolving; London’s role is awkward and exposed.
I don’t remember seeing any of this on the side of a bus, but I do recall Cameron being roundly mocked for noting that our EU membership was a safeguard of stability.
A few random sightings don't count.
Sad, but not surprised, as I suppose a rented portacabin plonked on the edge of a non descript bit of grass in the neighbourhood isn't very COVID secure.
So PPE you can dump into a bin full of a disinfectant, without it falling to bits?
Similarly, with mask technology, it may well be possible to design easy to disinfect systems that are re-usable.
Then the corruption, cronyism and general dishonesty which is the hallmark of this government will be the day to day matter for discussion.
The issue we have is that it is highly likely that the next pandemic will look nothing like the current one, whereas human instinct is always to prepare for the last war, so we run the risk of our preparations being essentially worthless at best and counterproductive at worst. Which is a long winded way of saying I agree that a PPE strategic reserve is potentially not cost effective, and the lessons we should (but won't) take from this are more around agility and quick decision making than specific actions to prepare us in practical terms.
(I'm not, for the record, convinced we'll see alien life confirmed this year or next. I do think it's more likely than commonly supposed - though to confirm that I'd have to know how commonly supposed it was.)
My guess is that the odds of proving extra-terrestrial life of some sort (I'm not saying intelligent) within the next decade is about evens. If I could find something more favourable than that I might have a pop.
from cases
from hospitalisations
In fairness it being sports day in that primary school would have been more important than the PCC election.
1. The push for federalism will become overt and will either make or break the EU as it has to face up to its inherent contradictions. We get to buy popcorn
2.The UK will onshore more of its vital needs and seek alternatives to a protectionist EU
3. The EU wlll sell itself to Putin for his gas and London will make a fortune off the proceeds.
None of that was on the side of a bus either.
Decided to go and sit out in the garden on my afternoon off - freezing cold wind picked up. I don't know who all these people are who are enjoying the "great outdoors" but it's not really outdoor weather now.
On topic, strange to be talking about a Prime Minister's legacy less than two years into the job and especially as some on here seem convinced he will be around for a decade before handing over to Rishi who will be PM for another decade and a half etc, etc.
How many Prime Ministers leave meaningful legacies? Very few, I'd argue - when I think of John Major, I think of the Cones Hotline. When I think of Tony Blair, it's Iraq, For Gordon Brown, it's the global financial crash, for Cameron the EU referendum and for Theresa May, the near destruction of the Conservative Party (you so nearly got there, Theresa, one more push and the whole lot would have collapsed).
I suspect Boris's legacy will be equally anodyne - it might even be Covid. I suspect it will be something else in the next two or three years. His political career will end in failure just like everyone else's.
Tories used party funds to cover Boris Johnson's legal bills over Jennifer Arcuri affair
Tory chiefs used party funds to pay Boris Johnson's legal bills, it emerged
Party co-chairman is said to have approved payments to the PM's lawyers
The cash was handed over weeks after Mr Johnson entered No10 in July 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9424745/Tories-used-party-funds-cover-Boris-Johnsons-legal-bills-Jennifer-Arcuri-affair.html
I wonder if any government money has been spent trying to deal with Boris Johnson's inability to keep the snake inside the pet shop.
The latest book an author has published pays the tax for their last book, the moment you stop writing new books you're screwed.
For some reason that revelation makes me think of Boris Johnson.
Really we should put our PM out to stud in Scotland and safeguard the Union..
Putting him out to stud in Scotland might be a mistake plus he doesn't give two hoots about the Union, as we saw with the no border down the Irish Sea.
The more you piss them off the more they have to hang in there to get revenge from the english taxpayer.
Are these the same US senators who believe in Young Earth Creationism? Or the anti-vaxxers?
Show your papers or you can't go to the Docs, the supermarkets, or the pub.
Ministers are discussing drawing up a list of “essential” places, including hospitals, GP surgeries and supermarkets, where vaccination passports would not be used, as Boris Johnson prepares to announce next week whether they will become a feature of British life.
Covid status certificates, available to those who have been vaccinated, recently tested negative or who have developed antibodies after contracting the virus, are being taken increasingly seriously at the top of government as a way of aiding the unlocking of the economy.
Just over five weeks ago Johnson announced that Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, would lead a review of the issue. While he was not expected to report until mid-June, the prime minister is expected to provide a “high-level direction of travel” update on certificates on Monday. If he says that he sees a role for passports, the Gove review will continue to June, focusing on solving practical difficulties.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gps-raise-concerns-over-covid-passport-scheme-7n0pn7pw7
This is what I used to do for a job.
Remember your fellow Brexiteers are prepared to give up the Union.
“I don’t like the religious and social views of person X”. Therefore I will ignore what they say about everything, as well as ignore people who I normally agree with when they say the same things as person X.
Make your mind up.
Then Gove will be asked to work out how the hell he gets it through the Commons if Starmer comes good and holds back his support for this mad idea.
Telegraph blog
Hurrah! No time for the zero covid zealots.
I was primarily involved in the products used to manufacture medicines rather than PPE but I assume the same considerations apply.
It is interesting that the US DoD and State Dept spend tens of millions of dollars on biosafety around the world, including buying developing countries autoclaves and incinerators, but somehow forgot to factor in the cost of the power/fuel to use them. Results - unused equipment and rooms of bags filled with medical waste.
I heard a rule of thumb that the average annual cost of operating a research lab is around 30-60% of the build cost, depending on the pathogens handled.
They're either using Sinovac in a suboptimal manner or Sinovac is less effective than Astra/Pfizer.
Probably a bit of both.
a) moderately sensitive political antennae
b) a whipping operation that had a receive mode, as well as transmit
c) an ability to anticipate the tiny duration for which a vaccine passport would be useful
d) an recognition that schemes like this will take ages and cost lots to debug
would already have left this madcap scheme by the backdoor for the binmen to collect overnight.
Unfortunately, we don't seem to have one of those.
Unless the plan is to give Govey something pointless to keep him busy until June, by which time it will be blooming obvious what a white elephant this is.